Angkor Thom

We entered Angkor Thom (Great City) by crossing a bridge guarded by dozens of stone faces and through a magnificent gate. We walked across the bridge and our guide met us after the gate. We were momentarily distracted by more monkeys, including some babies and the chance to buy some small local bananas to feed them. When he did so, Dylan got an interesting surprise from a very assertive monkey who decided to go directly to the source, jumping onto his back and just (stealing and) eating the bananas directly from Dylan.

Angkor Thom is famous for its 216 Buddhas—they’re everywehere—and it was an informal game to find as many as you could. This was a great complex for climbing and the cadets were all over the place. Again, we lost Dylan and he didn’t appear until we’d sent two search parties back into the complex to find him.